Economist Quote of the Day

This will be Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s challenge, since he will be running, if he runs, in part on his credentials as an economist. He has to make sure that this word means something other than “scold” or, worse, “tool of capital.”

I would imagine that heading the IMF is not a particularly popular launching point for the Presidency either. In other countries being a leader of the Socialist Part might hurt but, well, this is France.

It may be an axiom that people get the government they deserve. In a democracy that seems tautologous, but even brutes need a niche in which to survive. Reading The Invention of Enterprise Landes, Mokyr and Baumol eds., Michael Hau’s chapter on France does not predict a new dawn anytime soon. While America and Britain were enthusiastic, China and India historicallly at least offered periods of benign neglect, a not-quite-laissez-faire in which merchantry could work unobstructed by the cultural disdain which engenders political intervention. France, of course, is just the opposite. Its long, broad, and deep history of Colbertism (Jean-Baptiste unfortunately, not Stephen) does not offer much promise for the present.